Taking the Plunge
by Sgamer82
Summary: When Wataru Takagi was pushed of the bridge, he wasn't expecting Sato to jump in after him. Written for Poirot Cafe's Prompt Exchange #7. (One-Shot)


_**Detective Conan**_  
 _ **Taking the Plunge**_  
by  
Sgamer82

Wataru Takagi stood on the bridge, watching the river below him. It was a nice day out, and he was using his time off-duty to run some errands and get some shopping done. Takagi smiled as that thought reminded Takagi of the weight in his pocket. It barely weighed anything, yet it was perhaps the heaviest thing he had ever held. Of course, just getting it was step one. After that it became a matter of creating just the right moment to give it to her.

"Help!"

Takagi's head snapped up at the sound the voice. He turned in the direction he'd heard it come from and saw a man in a panic. What from Takagi couldn't see, but the wide, darting eyes and desperate cry for help said a lot.

Takagi stepped in front of the frightened man as he crossed the bridge.

"What's wrong, sir?" Takagi asked. "I can help I'm-"

"Demon!" the man yelled. "A demon's chasing me!"

Suddenly the man's terror at apparently nothing took on an entirely new context. Takagi quickly scanned the crowd to see that what civilians were present were staying well away. For Takagi, that was good.

"Sir, there's nothing chasing you," Takagi said soothingly. He tried not to look threatening. That lasted about as long as it took for the man to realize Takagi was blocking his path across the footbridge.

"Outta my way!" The man grabbed Takagi and tried to shove him. At this point Takagi resisted, partly in self-defense and partly to subdue this man before whatever high he was on caused him to harm someone innocent, if it hadn't already.

"Hold him there, Takagi-kun!" another voice called out.

It was a woman's voice; one Takagi recognized instantly. Before he could process its presence, however, the man became even more desperate to get past Takagi. As they struggled, the men reached the bridge's railing. Takagi was a critical second too late in realizing that their fight was going to take them over that rail and into the water below. As they went over, Takagi looked up and see the woman who had called out to him watching them fall with horror written all over her expression as they hit the water.

It was fortunate that the water was deep enough neither Takagi nor his assailant hit their heads on the bottom when they landed. It was also shallow enough that Takagi could stand. The man who had come down with him was still flailing in panic.

"Demon! Demon!" He screamed over and over between gasps for air as his head bobbed on the water's surface. Every time he came up his eyes were fixated on the bridge they had fallen from. Takagi looked up, saw what he was looking at, and once again the man's blind panic took on a whole new context as he saw Miwako Sato getting ready to hop onto the bridge railing.

"Sato-san! Wait!" Takagi cried out. It was too little, too late, even if Sato had been inclined to listen to him in the first place. By the time the words had completely left Takagi's mouth, Sato was already airborne and came down with a splash about a meter from where Takagi and his suspect waded and bobbed respectively.

When Sato emerged, soaking wet from head to toe, glaring at the man who had sent Takagi over the bridge, he stopped screaming the word "demon" and started screaming, period. Unperturbed by this, Sato waded her way to the man, a pair of handcuffs in her hands.

"Sato-san, what's going on here?"

"Pickpocketing and purse-snatching." Sato jerked the man to his feet and walked him to the shoreline before proceeding to cuff him. As she described the reasons for his arrest more officially, Takagi could only stand there, gaping. She had terrified a man into genuinely thinking her a demon, pursuing him to the point of jumping off a bridge and, like Takagi, it was her day off. Part of Takagi wanted to yell at her for her recklessness. To tell her off for endangering herself on her own that way. The rest of Takagi, which formed the majority opinion, had a much different thought.

 _I am going to_ marry _that woman._

Suddenly the weight in Takagi's pocket felt as light as a feather. He reached for pocket, heedless to the fact that the time for something like this was not while standing sopping wet in a river while the woman he loved was reading another man his rights. Instead what occurred to Takagi was that his burden suddenly felt light because it was suddenly gone. Takagi began frantically patting himself down searching when he heard Sato's voice.

"Oh, what is this? Not just purses and wallets but jewelry, too?"

Takagi's head shot up and his eyes fixated on a little black box in Sato's hand.

 _Oh no..._

"Ambitious," Sato told her culprit teasingly. "Even had a box ready. I pity the woman you planned on giving this to. I know I'd never accept a stolen ring."

"S-Sato-san..." Takagi said weakly. His attempt to get his partner's attention were drowned out by the pickpocket's vehement denials and claims he'd never seen the ring in his life. Sato shook her head and confescated the box.

Soon the on duty police arrived, took the suspect into custody and took any stolen property on him as evidence, including the ring. Takagi and Sato were taken in as well to give statements. Takagi held his tongue about the ring during the initial interviews, waiting until he could speak to his superior, Inspector Megure directly.

Takagi had been prepared to drag the Inspector to the jewelry store he'd bought the ring from to prove he'd bought it, since the actual receipt was ruined in the river. Fortunately that hadn't been necessary, for two reasons. The first was that Megure trusted Takagi implicitly enough to know he wouldn't lie about something like that. Less heartening was the inspector's second reason...

"That's something that could only happen to you, Takagi-kun," the Inspector had told him.

In the end, Takagi was able to get the ring back from evidence. However, he decided not to propose to Sato just yet.

It would probably be better to let the rumors and jokes about the detective whose would-be fiancee got rid of the ring before even proposed die out, first...


End file.
